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Fast & Slow – Toddler Storytime

I think I did a slow storytime for preschoolers a while ago, and I thought it might be fun to use with toddlers. I didn’t have enough good slow stories to round things out, so I decided to make it a fast & slow storytime.

Have the vehicles behind the board. Put one vehicle on the board at a time, and ask the audience if it goes fast or slow. When they answers, move the vehicle across the board at the correct speed. You can also make the noises the vehicle makes as you move it. Take this piece of the board, and then repeat with the next vehicle. This is nice one because you can lengthen it or shorten it depending on your audience. Those are all the flannel pieces I have for this pictured on the board – I didn’t actually use them all.

MOVEMENT: “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” from Songs for Wiggleworms by the Old Town School of Folk Music

HOW IT WENT:Storytime went so much better this week! Yay! You know how when you talk to someone but you’re not sure if it made any difference? That’s how I was left feeling at the end of last week, but SOMETHING must have happened, because everyone sat with their child and participated today. Yay! We are even handing out balloons as a promotion for a future event, and even with those, the kids were awesome. I did start by telling the parents since I knew balloons could be a distraction that I would need their help today. Maybe I just need to use that approach more. It’s a helping environment. Whatever it was that happened, it was a nicer storytime.

When I was picking materials for this storytime I wasn’t sure that “Slowly, Slowly, Slowly” said the Sloth would work with toddlers. I did skip over a few of the animals asking Sloth about his habits, but on the whole it seemed to work really well. I think I would use that again.